The Banning Of The Fault In Our Stars

Once upon a time, in a world not far from here, there are students who are forced to miss their annual train ride to Hogwarts, lock the wardrobe to the magical land of Narnia, and walk through the English countryside themselves instead of upon the back of Black Beauty. Why are these students deprived of those occurrences? They live in America, the land of the free- except when it comes to the books they can read. In fact, many schools across America exercise the practice of banning books. Since 1982, libraries, parents, and schools have attempted to ban 11,300 novels, according to the American Library Association. The essentially innoxious books are challenged for an assortment of reasons, including use of malapropos language, graphic or explicit

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green has been mostly rated with four or five stars. So why is it banned?

When parents realized thattheir children would be exposed to such things, some immediately publicized their outragethrough the press, complaining to Boards of Education, hoping to ban the book or have it simplyremoved from school districts and libraries.In Burlington, North Carolina,

All around the world, certain books are being banned or challenged in school districts often because the material is considered sexually explicit, unsuited for the age group, or includes offensive language or actions.

Censors typically feel as though the subject material of controversial books in the high school English curriculum is too much for teenagers to handle (Shen, 2002).

It covers adult themes … that most students have not been exposed to and should not be provided by the school. It is a novel that has no life lesson to be learned”(Gomez). A middle school in Minnesota had this book in their library and parents did not approve of their children reading it, because it has explicit scenes in the book. The parents of this community had a meeting in December 2015, talking about if the book should be banned or not. When the meeting was over, the book Just One Day, was banned in Minnesota schools entirely, and parents were happy that the book was finally

“A banned book is one that has been removed from the shelves of a library, bookstore, or classroom because of its controversial content...A book may be challenged or banned on political, religious, sexual, or social grounds” (Lombardi). According to Esther Lombardi, banned books are specific types of books that are not allowed to be read because they are considered dangerous or harmful in some way. Even though content such as depression, drugs, sexual activity, and violence in books is viewed as problematic or inappropriate, real life isn’t all fairy tales and unicorns. Life is hard, and there is bad in the world just like there is good in the world. Students should not be shielded from the bad of the real world. Instead, they should learn about those situations through books in the safety of schools. Crank is a book about a gifted junior in high school named Kristina Georgia Snow. Her parents are divorced, she lives in Reno with her mother, and for the first time in eight years she visits her father in New Mexico. However, this visit leads Kristina into many difficult life experiences. Students should be able to read Crank because it shows students how small decisions could impact people's lives, how drugs become a need, and how communication between a family is important.

What is the true cost of knowledge? Throughout history, books have been banned for an array of reasons ranging from inappropriate content, offensive language, and sexually explicit material. When proposing a challenge in hopes of banning a specific book from schools and libraries, those in favor claim children’s’ innocence should be preserved and that children should not be exposed to inappropriate material found within some books simply because it is part of a school’s required curriculum. In defense of these challenged books, many say the ethics of free speech and the important life lessons gained from reading books should be considered. Several books are banned within schools and libraries because of their potentially offensive or sensitive content; however,

Since 1982, there have been 11,300 books challenged in the United States. As the number of challenged books continues to rise, society’s exposure to diversity in literature decreases. According to the American Library Association, 51% of the top ten challenged books between 2005 and 2014 featured “diverse content.” Diverse content is defined as works featuring either non-white, LGBT+, or disabled primary characters, or discussions of issues in relation to race, religion, LGBT+ matters, mental illness and/or disabilities, among many other defining characteristics. Censoring such books has the potential to fundamentally stunt the personal growth of society, though many may feel certain information and topics must be censored for the safety of

Banning or challenging books is an occurrence that has been taking place for years in America’s school systems, but often parents and teachers are not in agreement concerning censorship. The National Council of Teachers of English position statement is “We can safely make two statements about censorship: first, any work is potentially open to attack by someone, somewhere, sometime, for some reason; second, censorship is often arbitrary and irrational.” One such challenged book is Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, which was “banned from an eighth-grade classroom in Arizona due to profanity, sexual content, and rape theme” (Lesesne and Chance 48). Even though it presents difficult topics, Speak could be a benefit to students in a

Skeptical about the hype around The Fault in Our Stars? Well I was too. Partially because these coming-of-age novels always manage to poke fun at my comparably uneventful and boy-less life. However this book spread like wildfire, engulfing victim after victim till even the cynical book readers I knew were infected. It imprisoned them, hands cuffed to this book till the turning of pages blurred before my eyes. Soon I became hostage by this book as well. To my surprise, John Green creates a cleverly crafted story that explores the life changing, funny, and tragic effects of being alive and in love.

Many significant novels have unfortunately been challenged/ banned at a certain point in time. Most of these literary classics face this because some contain sexual references, religious intolerance, and inappropriate language. In some cases, books are being pulled off shelves because people believe that they were “tangibles of instruction” or the reason being was as a precaution towards a possible public attack which took effect in Tucson for the Mexican American Studies (source:8). Another case is the Mozert v. Hawkins County Board of Education; Christian sewed the board because they believed that the required textbooks hurt their beliefs (Source:8).

In 2014, 311 books were banned or challenged in schools and libraries across the United States (Banned Books: Reasons for Banning Books). Each year books are being banned or are unavailable at certain places for many different reasons. Some might say that all books should be accessible for anyone who wants to read them. However, some books have content that some may not understand clearly or might have an effect how they think afterwards. Therefore, books should only be available for the correct age group because some books may confuse those younger than the indented audience.

How offensive can a book be to be challenged frequently by parents and school districts? From the “Banning” article: “Parents--a handful, really--In a Chicago school district raised concerns about “Part Time Indian” at a recent board meeting; they claimed that the subject matter of the book wasn’t appropriate for kids just entering high school.” The parents feel that his book is too vulgar for the reading of high school kids. The book has been noted for its cultural insensitivity, drugs/alcohol/smoking, gambling, and being sexually explicated. This is something that may not be appropriate for the reading of a high school kid, but I feel that the book should not be banned because of these issues.

How much should be censured by school systems and why are some books accepted while others are not? This is what some people think about when deciding whether or not to ban certain book from their school systems. Furthermore, why my topic on whether or not To Kill a Mockingbird should or should not be band in school systems is important to talk about because it is a book that has an enormous amount of people that argue over it. Moreover, people who want To Kill a Mockingbird to be band believe that the book has negative impacts on children's minds however people who don’t want To Kill a Mockingbird to be band believe that the book teaches important topics that is usually hard to teach students. In addition to this, To Kill a Mockingbird should not be banned from school because it teaches children good life lessons about empathy and doing the right things.